This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.
Michael Commane
On April Fool’s Day I read a report in a national newspaper about RTÉ reporter Yvonne Murray packing her bags and leaving China. Unfortunately it was anything but an April Fool’s joke. Instead it is a true story that I for one find extremely frightening and should cause the world great concern.
For over a year or so Yvonne has appeared on our television screens reporting from China and giving first-hand accounts and analysis of what might have happened at Wuhan where Covid-19 first reared its ugly head.
Her husband is well known BBC correspondent John Sudworth.
The couple, who have been living in China for nine years left the country at the end of March and are now living in the nearby island of Taiwan.
They left the People’s Republic of China because they were getting concerned about their safety.
It was becoming more and more difficult for them to renew their visas and then the day they left home to go to the airport to travel to Taiwan they said they were followed all the way to the airport by Chinese security services.
Mainland China claims ‘ownership’ of Taiwan which is also known as the Republic of China. Since 1971 the United Nations recognises Mainland China and today most of the big powers have diplomatic relations with Mainland China and no embassies in Taiwan. The Holy See is one of a small number of countries who continue to have an embassy in Taiwan.
The Holy See is currently in negotiations with the Beijing government in setting up diplomatic relations. In 2018 the Vatican and the Chinese government did a deal on the appointment of bishops in China.
The story of the Catholic Church in China is complicated and right now the Vatican’s top diplomat Cardinal Pietro Parolin is in delicate negotiations with Beijing. Indeed, he has many critics within the church for his diplomatic overtures towards the Communist government in China.
Xi Jinping has been president of the People’s Republic since 2013 and in 2018 the Chinese legislature reappointed Xi as president but on this occasion there is no time limit to his period of power.
He’s China’s strong man.
Since 2015 the government in Beijing has interned over one million Uighers. The Uighers are Chinese Muslims who mainly live in the northwest of the country.
Beijing claims all that they are doing is trying to put a stop to Islamist terrorism and the camps are places of re-education. The Uighers, opposition Chinese journalists and their counterparts in the West claim the camps are more akin to concentration camps. The stories coming out of the camps do not make for pleasant reading.
It would seem that China is becoming an ever more secret and dark place.
It has reneged on the agreement it made with the UK over the governance of Hong Kong.
These days it is making loud noises about its claims on Taiwan. Indeed, it can’t be long before it makes moves on its neighbouring island.
How long will it be before Yvonne Murray and her family will have to pack their bags and move yet again?
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